Cheese Danish

Danish + cheese have probably never been in the same sentence with “low calories,” unless there were words like “heck” and “no” in there as well. Attempting to make a tasty guilt-free cheese Danish is like trying to incorporate bacon fat into a skinny diet. So I’m not even going to pretend that these semi-homemade buttery treats are healthy for you, but they are an easy and satisfying Sunday splurge.

This past Sunday I had some friends over. They insisted they would have already eaten before arriving, but it was at that in-between time when pastries would be perfect in case hunger strikes, or if they just felt like something delicious. There were still tubes of reduced fat crescent rolls sitting in the fridge, never used from Thanksgiving, along with some fat-free cream cheese and sugar-free strawberry preserves. I worked off of this embarrassingly simple recipe. To portion control, I measured out half tablespoons of cream cheese per Danish and sprinkled sugar on top. These were truly fantastic, and for 200 calories…that is like celery compared to the ones at a popular coffeehouse chain.